


The Sorcerer's Apprentice (REVISED)

by Mischiefs_Angel



Category: Captain America (Movies), Doctor Strange (2016), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Domestic Avengers, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Mild Adult Themes, Mild Language, Not Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, The Stark family has issues, spoiler free
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-19
Updated: 2019-04-26
Packaged: 2019-05-08 19:20:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14700549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mischiefs_Angel/pseuds/Mischiefs_Angel
Summary: Max's life as a liaison for her father, Tony Stark, took a turn for the stranger when a new hero enters the world-saving business. The rifts in her family have been bad enough since the Avengers broke apart. Now, she has to balance fractured relationships with a new one as Doctor Strange enters her life. The only real problem will be hiding the truth from her super-family. (Infinity War AND Endgame SPOILER *FREE*)





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This is a revision of my previous Doctor Strange/OC Fic. I will keep the original listed for a while until I feel the revision is complete enough to replace it. To everyone who read the original, thank you for your comments and feedback and I hope you enjoy this new take on Max's story.
> 
> As always, this isn't Beta'd. My mistakes are my own and I'm sure there are a few. Feel free to leave a comment or review.
> 
> ~Mischief's Angel

“I am Iron Man.” 

The press whipped into a frenzy of questions as cameras flashed relentlessly. The news often speaks of pivotal moments that change history, but this time the reports were not exaggerated. This one moment was a start to a series of events so spectacular that they would change the course of the world. On a smaller scale, however, this one moment wasn’t simply a new life for renowned inventor Tony Stark; this was also a new start for a young girl, watching the press conference on a TV in yet another foster home. She had no idea that, standing there in the hallway, hidden out of sight from the foster parents who were returning her anyway, nothing would be the same after that. 

Max, only twelve years old at the time, had spent most of her life in the foster system. When she was young - young enough to barely remember - she was taken from her birth mother by child services. It had something to do with the woman being unfit to care for a young child. Max had never been truly connected with the woman. Her birth father was even more of a mystery, since Max had never known a thing about him. It wasn’t likely that he and her mother spent more than a few hours in each other's company. Home after home, Max was taken care of for a short while and then sent away. Never truly understanding why none of her caretakers would keep her, she grew to believe it was simply because no one wanted her. It was at her last and final foster home that she watched down the hall, over the back of the couch and between the heads of the family who sat there, as Tony Stark revealed Iron Man to the world. 

It wasn’t long after that Tony Stark’s “new leaf” turned over. He not only sought to fix current mistakes and create a brighter future, but he also began to look back at past wrongs as well. This is what led him to learn a startling truth about a drunken night at a technological convention years before. The woman he’d met that night had filed numerous reports about being pregnant with Stark’s child, but it was the 90s. A  _ lot _ of women falsely filed that complaint and were met with a team of lawyers. This one, however, had passed away shortly after losing custody of a child. The pregnancy was real, so the case merited attention. The results spoke for themselves as he inspected the claim. He had a new lease on life, a new superhero identity, and a daughter. He had gotten himself into this situation and he’d be damned it he didn’t try to make it right. It wasn’t long before Tony won custody of his child. Strings were pulled, paperwork was filed, and Max was finally given a real home. It wasn’t as normal as she had expected, but normal wasn’t something that described Max anyway. She hadn’t only been introduced to her biological father, but she had also been adopted by Iron Man. 

The weird life she lived only grew more strange as the Incident in New York brought together the Earth’s mightiest heroes: The Avengers. As Max grew up, she saw disaster after disaster unfold only to be stopped by superheroes. This life became the new normal to her and the heroes, her new family. She spent more time around gods, spies, and soldiers than around normal people her age. 

Her life seemed perfect until it was shattered by a Sokovian city being dropped from the sky. This was the start of the fracturing. From then, the Accords started tearing people out of her life. This team of heroes she looked up to for so long were revealed to be flawed, broken people like anyone else. She continued to work for her father, acting as a liaison for all Avengers business, buffering his life as Iron Man and his life as Tony Stark, as well as helping the other heroes as often as she could. However, it was never the same when the team changed. A few years passed with no word from many of the people she’d once considered family. Through all this, she still hoped that things could get better again. 

After all, there are more heroes in New York than just the Avengers...


	2. Chapter 2

Max wrapped both hands around her coffee cup, looking over the steaming lid at the screen on the table in front of her. The cafe where she had set up her laptop seemed far enough out of the way to ensure that she stayed safe and anonymous for the task at hand. She watched the security feeds on one side of the screen and the facial recognition software on the other. In a movement disguised by pushing her thin framed glasses up the bridge of her nose, she reached up to her ear to activate the small device she wore. 

“How we lookin’?” Tony’s voice came through the small earpiece. 

“You were right,” she answered, voice calm and quiet enough to draw no attention to the small corner table, “All four of them show up in both SHIELD and HYDRA records. Looks like these guys worked for the latter.” 

“So, I guess their still upset about Cap beating up all their evil overlords a few years back. Either way, guys with guns is a walk in the park.” 

“That’s just it,” Max noted, “I don’t think they’re just carrying guns. They showed up on the radar a few days ago, right?” 

“Right.” 

“Well, that’s exactly when guys matching their descriptions stole something really odd from a museum. If HYDRA wants something, it’s usually dangerous.” 

“HYDRA has art thieves now?” Col. Rhode’s voice chimed in over the com. 

“Not quite. It was an ancient artifact originally from the region around Tibet. A few years ago, it turned up in London.”

“Museums bring new items in all the time,” Rhodey remarked, “Why do you sound worried?” 

“Because it wasn’t brought in. It just...showed up. In the middle of the city. The museum took it in. Now, it’s suddenly stolen by thugs from an organization that  _ should _ be gone. If they’ve got it now, be careful. It’s either dangerous or just  _ really _ old and valuable.” 

“Don’t get blown up by a weird artifact. Got it.” Tony’s confidence did nothing to put Max at ease. “We’ll stop the bad guys. You find out what that thing is.” 

“On it.” 

She took a long sip of her coffee while typing with her free hand. So far, there were almost no records of the artifact. The museum had placed its origin, but knew little else about it. It was an old wood and iron coffer, ornately decorated with runes that she didn’t recognize. In all fairness, she wasn’t an expert in the artistic history of lockboxes; however, one of the symbols looked eerily familiar. The round marking on top with bands crossing over it in a certain design was a seal that reminded her of one she had seen in the Village. There was an old mansion on Bleeker Street with an oculus window that looked very similar, though the bands across it were placed differently. 

Sounds of a fight pulled her attention away from the image. Iron Man and War Machine must have engaged the HYDRA agents already. She didn’t expect the two of them to have any trouble. Still, something was off about this. 

“Hey, Tony. I know you’re busy, but - whatever you do - don’t open that thing!” 

“What’s the matter with it?” Rhodey asked, slightly out of breath. 

“There’s some conspiracy theory article about that symbol on top. It’s rumored to have some sort of curse on it or something.” 

“HYDRA’s stealing Pandora’s box now?” Tony asked, words punctuated by the sound of a repulsor going off, “Curses aren’t a thing. Maybe Asgardian?”

“Just, please, be care-” 

Max was cut off when she watched a feed from one of the street cameras. One of the agents still standing pulled out the artifact in question, opening it up and running away. 

“See? Nothing,” Stark said all too soon. 

After a moment, the chest began rattling violently before massive dark shadows started to emerge from inside of it. The shadows seemed to take the form of massive, hellish creatures made of nothing but the dark. They began spreading over the street. 

“Tony! What the hell’s going on over there?” 

“Uh…I’ll get back to you on that.” 

As the creatures moved closer to the street camera the feed went dead. Max was blind to what was going on. 

_ “Shit.”  _

“Watch your mouth, Junior,” Tony scolded between loud clamors and blasts. 

“I’m blind over here. Nothing but satellite feed and those things are causing a really weird interference.” 

“Minimum safe distance,” Rhodes reminded her. 

That was the deal they’d established. With so many of the team in the wind, Tony needed extra eyes on every threat. After what they’d been through with HYDRA, you couldn’t be too careful. Max, offering to help, wasn’t a supersoldier or a spy or even someone who Tony wanted involved in the dangerous side of things. However, as long as she stayed far away from the action, she could manage the technical aspect.

It  _ was _ a good idea. 

Another alert flashed onto the screen in front of her. 

“Uh oh…” she gasped quietly, “Someone’s not happy about me pulling stuff from HYDRA. I scrambled my trail, but they’re working hard to undo that.” 

“English,” Rhodes requested. 

“I’m playing tag with HYDRA and they’re it. I’m a few minutes from blown.” 

“Get outta there, kid!” Tony demanded. 

Max didn’t hesitate. Careful to look as natural as she could, she packed up her stuff. Slinging her bag across her chest and picking up her coffee, she made her way outside. From the corner of her eye, she watched a man who had been sitting close to the counter walk out after she did. Max took extra turns to try and scatter her path, but a careful look behind her showed that the man was still there. Now, there were two of them. Or...maybe three. There was no way that Tony or Rhodey could break away from the clamoring scuffle that she was still listening to. If she was loud enough to even get there attention, her new stalkers would know she was onto them. She’d have to fix this herself. 

As she rounded another corner, she took off into a sudden run across the street. She was small and fast enough to make it across just before traffic resumed and created dozens of speeding obstacles for her new friends. Still, it wasn’t enough. They were also running, and now they were mad. Max didn’t have another chance to look back. She ran straight toward the scuffle with HYDRA and broke “minimum safe distance.” She wasn’t fast enough. A hand roughly grabbed her elbow and whipped her around. Swinging her other arm around in a fist, she struck the man who grabbed her. However, the second had already caught up with them. He grabbed her other arm and her struggle to break free sent her off balance. 

She remembered falling, instinctively shutting her eyes as she prepared to hit the pavement. The ground came up roughly to meet her, grinding at her knee and tearing through her jeans to bite at the skin beneath. She hissed out at the stinging pain, but it was soon forgotten as the pavement vanished from under her. Once again she was falling, this time faster and faster as if she’d fallen through the ground itself. The hand that grabbed her was gone. Instead, she fell right into someone else. 

She was caught by two sturdy arms before she could hit the ground again. Her eyes slowly opened to glance around her. She was nowhere close to the ground, seeming to hover about thirty feet above it. The terrifying realization sent her shuffling closer to whoever was holding her. Hazarding a look up, her breath caught in her throat. The man who caught her was looking down at her with great concern. He had elegant, sharp features with the most striking eyes she had ever seen, which seemed to be blue but with every other shade she could think of mixed into the nebula of color. Dark hair was contrasted by two streaks of a silvery grey at each temple. In short, this man was gorgeous. It was after staring for a moment that she realized he was speaking to her. 

“Are you alright?” he asked, his voice deep and genuine. 

She nodded a bit blankly, unable to will words into her mouth. It was then that she remembered they were so far off the ground. Before she could form words or be afraid like a rational person would, she was carefully set back on the ground. As she tried to shift weight onto her own feet, a pain in her knee caused her to wince and start to lean off of it too far. Something came around behind her letting her lean her weight against it. The odd red fabric seemed to support itself, but Max didn’t have a mind to question it. 

“Here, let me help,” her rescuer insisted, looking down at her leg where she had fallen. 

The cuts from the pavement weren’t the worst injury Max had ever gotten, but the blood soaking into her torn jeans and the stinging in her skin certainly didn’t make today any better. The stranger knelt down in front of her, carefully examining the scrapes with a practiced concentration. Max watched with fascination as he made an odd motion with his hands and glowing runes seemed to appear around his wrist. He held his hand forward and carefully rotated it, adjusting the positioning of his gloved fingers as he did. Max’s eyes widened in surprise as the blood from her pants seemed to vanish, followed by the abrasions on her skin and the tear in the fabric itself. Finally, it was as if she’d never fallen at all. She stood up straight, any pain completely gone. 

The red fabric she’d leaned on whipped around, fixing itself to the collar of the

Stranger’s odd, blue tunic. What she now saw was a cape of sorts straightened out its collar and looked as normal as any other cape (if capes could really ever be normal). Between the tunic, cape, gloves, and the odd pendant that the man wore, he was a strange looking character. Still, Max couldn’t help but think how natural it all seemed to look on him. 

“If you’ll excuse me,” he pardoned himself, walking past Max toward where Iron Man and War Machine were standing surrounded by the shadow creatures, firing in numerous directions and making little progress. 

Walking down the empty street, he picked up the coffer from where it had been discarded. It was suspended in the air before him as he once again summoned the glowing runes from before. This time, the size and detail of these shapes and symbols increased. They seemed to envelope the artifact. As this was happening, the shadow creatures roared and shrieked, being drug back from where they came. The coffer dropped to the ground, pulling in each and every escaped creature. When the last one was contained, the stranger whipped a glowing red band around it, shutting it and wrapping numerous times. When he was satisfied that it was well sealed, he let out a deep sigh of relief. 

“Mr. Stark,” he greeted as Iron Man made his way toward them. 

“Merlin,” the reply came through the suit. His gaze turned back toward Max. 

_ “Oh, _ right,” the other remembered. 

In a few fluid movements, he opened a glowing portal in mid air, floating above the pile of groaning HYDRA agents that War Machine stood watch over. Flying out of the portal, the two men who pursued Max fell with a thud into the mess. 

“I believe these are yours to take care of.” He picked up the artifact once more, tucking it under his arm. “And I’ll be taking this.”

“Any chance I’m gonna be allowed to take a look at that? If HYDRA wanted it-”

“Not happening, Stark. I assure you, they won’t get another chance either.” 

Max was dumbfounded, watching everything unfold with awe on her face. 

“Um...what the hell?!”

“I said safe distance, Junior!” Tony griped before turning back to the stranger, “Doc, this is my daughter Max.”

“Daughter?” the man asked, clearly surprised. 

Tony ignored it and turned to Max. 

“Max, this is Doctor Strange.” 

Strange offered a polite smile to Max. 

“Pleasure to meet you, Miss Stark.” 

“Wow,” Max blurted out, “Um...I mean... _ wow.”  _


	3. Chapter 3

As Iron Man cleared out the defeated HYDRA agents, Max regathered her wits and drove back upstate to the compound. It was a much slower process in her Audi than it would have been in a flying suit of armor, but not everyone could do things the genius-billionaire-avenger way. She arrived back at her “home away from home” in time to catch the end of an argument in the R-and-D lab. 

While Stark, Rhodes, and Dr. Strange were arguing, Max stayed back by the door, unwilling to interject in what she didn’t feel was any of her business. Or...it wasn’t her business until Tony found a way to bring her into the mess. 

“That’s your solution? Lock it up in Disney’s Haunted Mansion down on Bleecker?” Tony scoffed. 

“And your solution would be to play with it until you create a bigger problem,” Strange retorted, “My answer is no - a word I get the feeling you aren’t used to hearing.” 

Rhodey’s calmer tone interjected. “If we find out what it does, then we find out what HYDRA wants it for.”

“Thank you,” Tony sighed prematurely. 

“On the other hand, Tony,” Rhodes continued, “If HYDRA wants it, it doesn’t do something good. I’d rather not turn on the death box if it lets those creatures out again.” 

“I wanna know how.” 

“Short answer: Magic.” Strange replied sharply. “My division. I’ll be keeping it. Safe from HYDRA and anyone else with a dangerous curiosity.” 

“Safe from me, you mean?” 

“Exactly.”

Strange turned to leave, cloak whipping around behind him. Stark fell silent. 

Max watched Strange leave, the determination to leave etched clearly on his face. She knew the best thing to do was probably to walk away and leave everyone involved to cool off. Then again, this was likely the last time she would see this odd sorcerer again for some time...or ever. In the end, Max’s better judgement rarely won over her gut feelings. She quickly walked after the man. 

A portal opened before the sorcerer on the ground floor of the compound. Just before he walked through, someone called from behind him. 

“Doctor Strange?” 

The voice was calm, polite, and a bit shy - a definite contrast from his previous conversation. He turned to look, seeing Max walking over to him. Almost instinctively, his stern expression faded into a gentler one. 

“Miss Stark.” 

“I know you’re probably very busy, but...I didn’t get the chance to thank you for saving me today. So, thanks.” She smiled sweetly as she spoke. “I mean, how you trapped those HYDRA thugs and...it was  _ awesome _ .” 

“Well, I don’t know about  _ awesome _ , but you’re very welcome.” His expression lightened even more into a slight grin. “I only wish more people were as grateful for my work.” 

He glanced in the direction he came from the lab. 

“Tony would never admit it, but he’s thankful for the help. Too much pride to remember ‘thank yous’ sometimes.” Max reached into her pocket, pulling out a business card and offering it to Strange. “If you ever need anything and don’t feel like arguing with Iron Man, I’ll do what I can. It’s my job to be good with other heroes  _ for him _ sometimes.” 

Strange reached out and accepted the card from her. Another appeared in her hand in its place, this card on a faded parchment that simply held the writing “177a Bleecker St.” 

“If anything like this happens again, you’ll know where to find me.”

Strange started to step through the portal, pausing to look back at the paper in Max’s hand briefly. His smirk grew a bit as he shook his head a bit and vanished with the sparks and embers of the portal. 

Max examined the paper in her hand, flipping it over in her palm. There was nothing on the other side at first glance. However, as she examined it, a string of numbers seemed to write themselves neatly on the back. Max’s smile brightened a bit as she bit her lip excitedly. She had to remind herself not to read into it. After all, it was a professional exchange of information. This was her job. The hot wizard who saved her life gave her his phone number for strictly professional reasons. 

Making her way back up toward Tony, she took a deep breath and hoped that he wasn’t in too bad a mood after the disagreement he seemed to have with Strange. 

“So, today got kinda crazy.” 

Tony turned around from the array of screens he was staring into, all of them depicting a different street or satellite image of the morning HYDRA incident. 

“I don’t get it,” he sighed, “For starters, HYDRA’s supposed to be dead. Cap blew the whole thing wide open. Why are they back? Why now? Next, they know about this strange tech or…”magic” or whatever it is. HYDRA doesn’t take toys they don’t plan to use.”

“This means they’re not only back, but they’re active and scheming again?” 

“Bingo, Kiddo.” 

“I’ll look into any other mysterious artifacts gone missing then. If they go after another one or have any more, there’ll be a trail.” 

“It’d be easier to know what we were looking for if we knew more about this one,” Tony added, turning back to a screen and enlarging the image of the artifact from before, “But Strange doesn’t like sharing toys with the rest of us.” 

“You don’t like him much, do you?”

“Strange? He’s an ass, but he’s not so bad. Comes in handy when it counts. The whole “magic” schtick, however - not a fan.” 

“I kinda like him,” Max shrugged. 

“Be careful around that one,” Tony instructed, turning back to Max again, “He’s got a solid moral compass and he’s handy, but that doesn’t make him safe. Everything about him is just a bit  _ off.”  _

“Tony, you don’t meet a guy called “Strange” and expect him to operate the same way you do,” Max laughed, “But I’ll be careful. You know what they say about deadly magicians.” 

“I’m being serious. Look at me. This is my serious face.” 

Max put her hands up in a surrender of her sarcasm. “I’ll make sure to look out for myself and keep a nice, professional distance. As always.” 

“I know,” Tony sighed, “I trust you. I just can’t shake a bad feeling about all of this. I feel like he knows more about this mess that he’s not sharing - as always - and it’s hard to trust someone to keeps something this big to himself.”

“Secrets might make things trickier, but there’s usually a reason for them. Either way, I get the feeling that the only way we’re gonna figure this out is playing nice with someone who knows about these kinds of weapons.”

“You’re saying we need him?” 

“I’m saying we should play nice at the very least. Maybe we can coax him into doing the same and get out ahead of HYDRA for once.” 

 

Dropping her bag on the foot of the bed, Max finally settled into her room. It wasn’t her normal residence, since she spent a lot of time in her apartment in the city. Having a room in the compound, however, also made good sense. It was a task to always go back and forth. Besides, there had been an excess of space recently. That left she, Tony, and Rhodey staying here a part of the time. No one was a permanent resident anymore, since no one seemed to be able to stand the near empty building these days. It was still a base of operations for Iron Man and War Machine. It was functional, as long as the other rooms were ignored. The other rooms that were still as the previous avengers had left them. After they were empty for a while, Max thought she might go in and maintain the rooms a bit. Make sure they were nice on the off chance that they would be used again. After one attempt to be inside one of them, she’d returned to keeping them locked up. It was still too hard. Now, she just kept to her own small room there. 

She sat on the edge of her bed and looked around the space numbly. The adrenaline of the day had worn off, any excitement fading with it. She’d fought every desire she had to talk to someone about her crazy day and the handsome new hero that she’d met. She had to ignore that instinct and remind herself that she had no one to talk to. Not anymore. Trying to ward off the isolation pulling at her thoughts, she walked over to the desk in the corner of the room opposite the bed. On the surface, a frame was laid face down. She must have done that the last time she was here. Picking it up, she gazed fondly at the photo inside. Max hardly recognized the happy girl bearing her resemblance. The girl had a brilliant smile as she wrapped her arms around the man in front of her, resting her chin on his shoulder. The white-haired boy flashed a dazzling smile, mirrored in the smile of his twin sister who stood beside the other two, arm outstretched to take the photo. Max sniffled a bit as she felt a warm tear roll down her cheek. 

“I miss you guys so much.” 

At the time, losing Pietro had been the hardest thing she’d ever gone through. After that, just when she thought she could accept it and move forward, fate decided to come back and take her closest friend Wanda along with most of her strange hero family. Fate in the form of an ungrateful government backed by none other than Iron Man himself. 

Looking down at the card still in her hand, she allowed a small, hopeful smile. After a lonely few years, it was nice to meet new people. 


	4. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This update is very short and long overdue, but there will be another longer chapter released very soon. I hope to have the next update posted later this weekend. Thank you to anyone still reading this after my long hiatus. Feel free to leave comments and kudos if you like it. 
> 
> ~Mischief's Angel

The past few days had driven Max utterly stir-crazy. The number of stuffy Stark Industries board meetings, press, and ribbon cuttings was nearly high enough to make her miss being threatened by HYDRA. At least that had been a sign that she was doing something important. There had been radio silence from the world saving business since Tony had been denied the opportunity to tinker with a dangerous weapon. While  _ Iron Man _ was still on the job, ready for emergencies, Max had been sent to manage the company side. 

Tony asking her to keep a safe distance from HYDRA should have kept her safely away from the investigation. Then again...she was a Stark. Her own investigative efforts were the only thing keeping her sane. So far, giving every spare moment to research had proven fruitless. It was as though this stolen item didn’t exist up until its mysterious appearance. No one seemed to know a thing about it - well,  _ almost _ no one. Max still had a strong feeling that Dr. Strange had kept a great deal of information to himself. 

Instinct led her across her apartment’s living room to grab her purse. She didn’t have to dig around in the bag very long before she fished out the calling card with the self-written phone number across the back. There was an easy solution to her questions; she could just ask. However, something told her that questions about stuff like this were never straightforward. There were a lot of factors involved that she wasn’t afraid to admit she didn’t understand. It was a risk, but her alternative was sitting around waiting restlessly for the next emergency. 

Besides, she really didn’t have anyone else to talk to. After all of the board meetings, it would be nice to talk to someone on the “super” side of things. She couldn’t exactly talk to Tony about the research he had told her to stay away from. 

Pulling out her phone, she punched in the number quickly...before deleting it and setting the phone down. 

“Come on, Max,” she grumbled to herself, “You’re a professional... _ ish _ . It’s just a phone call.” 

She took a deep breath, trapping the air in her lungs for a moment as she once again typed in the number and called. Having already pressed the call button, she let the breath out and anxiously listened for an answer. Right as she was about to surrender to the unanswered ringing, a calm, deep voice greeted her. 

_ “Miss Stark.”  _

“Hello, Dr. Strange? It’s Max St-...wait, you already know that. Um…” Max rambled out, resisting the urge to hang up rather than embarrass herself. 

_ “To what do I owe the pleasure?”  _

Max could hear a hint of amusement in his voice at her previous stumbling, but there was nothing harsh about the tone. She had her fingers crossed that it simply played across as charming or likable. 

“I won’t waste your time dancing around the fact, Doctor,” she explained, finding a bit more confidence as she remembered her purpose behind the call, “I want to ask questions about the artifact that was stolen and recovered.” 

_ “I see.” _

“I think we both know that you’re the man to ask about the demon-box and I’d really like to know why the crazy HYDRA goons want it.” 

She left her statement hanging, waiting for a reply.

_ “I think there is a way we can help each other, Miss Stark,” _ Strange answered,  _ “You want to know about the relic and I’d like to know how someone found it first.”  _

“If I knew what I was dealing with,” Max offered, “I might be able to find that answer for you. I don’t know a thing about ‘relics,’ but I know how to find some non-magical answers about HYDRA.”  

_ “It sounds as though we have a deal.”  _

Max excitedly pumped her fist in the air in silent celebration. 

_ “But…that is not a discussion safe to hold over the phone.”  _

He paused for a long moment. Max wondered if she was just imagining the hesitation that she felt from him. 

_ “We should speak in person. I believe you have the address.”  _

“Sure do,” Max agreed, “I know it’s short notice, but do you have any time today.” 

_ “For you, Miss Stark, I’ll make time.” _

With that, the call ended. While unconventional, the abrupt ending didn’t feel unnatural. Max suspected that Strange was not a man to waste time or words. 

_ I’ll make time. _ The words echoed in Max’s thoughts for a while. She scolded herself for looking too far into their meaning. So far, he was polite and possibly as eager for answers as she was. 

Looking down at her casual attire, Max decided that something else would look more professional. She would need to do something about her “I haven’t slept in days” appearance. Fleeing quickly to her closet, she rifled around for better clothes. After some deliberation, she settled on one of her traditional professional looks. The blouse and pencil skirt were far from her favorites, but they looked nice. Nice would have to do. After changing, she used makeup to skillfully conceal the tired circles around her eyes and make her look a bit more alive. Finally, she faced the challenge of styling her short, dark hair to look less haggard and boyish. 

The last step, she reminded herself, was to make sure that she could make time too. She grabbed her phone, calling one of the most accessed numbers. 

“Miss Potts,” she explained over the call, “I’m gonna be out for the rest of the day. I have an appointment that could take a while…..A doctor…..No, no everything’s fine. I’m just following up on something.”

A minute later, she was out the door, armed with research, questions, and an unexplainable sort of excitement. 

  
  
  



End file.
